Avalanche gets a goalie in Scott Wedgewood

The Colorado Avalanche have finally had enough of the shaky tandem between Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen. They made a trade this morning that sends Annunen and a 2025 sixth-round pick to the Nashville Predators for goaltender Scott Wedgewood.

Wedgewood, 32, struggled in his first season with Nashville after signing there over the summer. He posted a save percentage of just .878 while compiling a record of 1-2-1.

You could probably say that his two strongest games with the Preds were his last, as he stopped all 15 shots in a relief game on November 25th and stopped 31 of 34 shots in an overtime loss to Edmonton on November 14th.

Signed at an annual average of $1.5 million for this year and next, Wedgewood actually increases Colorado’s immediate cost since Annunen was making just $837,000 but was only 24 years old and essentially the same Numbers like Wedgewood presented.

In Annunen’s last three appearances for the Avs, he had all had major problems and it seemed like the Avs might need to find a solution at the position.

Landing on Wedgewood was strange, however, as he wasn’t particularly good for most of his career. Recently, there was a two-year stretch from 2021 to 2023 where Wedgewood was a strong backup goaltender, but his play declined significantly last year in Dallas before really declining in his short tenure with the Predators.

Let’s look at some fantasies.

What do the Avalanche get in Wedgewood compared to what they had in Annunen?

Let’s start with last year’s player card, because he didn’t play enough this season to make any significant changes.

That was a big slump last season and you don’t really like where he stands in terms of individual breakdowns other than he hasn’t had many bad starts.

For the Avs, they are clearly looking for a goalie who can be a stabilizing force behind the still-uncertain Georgiev, so a veteran who can just be “okay” makes sense.

At Wedgewood, however, one can certainly question whether they succeeded at all.

Wedgewood essentially allowed four more goals than expected, and the highest concentration of those, oddly enough, took place outside the net. Let’s compare that with Annunen.

Annunen has allowed around six more goals than expected, and the greatest concentration does not take place directly at the net, but rather from a distance.

This is an interesting performance from Annunen because look where the Avs missed their chances when Annunen was in net.

The highest concentration of shots took place directly in front of him and the points. The middle of the ice was stable, but that’s where Annunen allowed most of his goals at 5-on-5.

To me, this told the story of a young goalkeeper who conceded too many easy goals from distance.

Let’s compare that to Wedgewood.

So Nashville defended in front of him in a 5-on-5 system.

Overall it’s not bad, but it mostly makes you wonder what’s going on with the right side of the Predators defense when so many shots come from there.

Look at the goals he’s allowed above and you’ll see a goalkeeper who concedes too many goals from almost everywhere (that’s my memory of the small examples in the game).

Is this good for the Avs?

For me it’s a cop-out to say, “Well, they’re goalkeepers, so who knows?” But you’re here reading this, so I have to say that on the surface I don’t like it.

I understand that everything has gone wrong in Nashville so far this year and Wedgewood’s four starts aren’t enough to upset or excite him, but his career record isn’t significantly better.

The Avs get a veteran they naturally love as a team chasing the sport’s ultimate prize, with a coaching staff that has shown reluctance to deal with the growing pains of young players. This was particularly true of Annunen, who apparently never managed to gain the trust of the organization.

Wedgewood is, in theory, a player who can give the Avs the basic performance they want from a backup goaltender: mediocre and repeatable.

With his career to date, there is enough data to tell the story you want to tell with this profession. The Avs can point to his time in Dallas and make a case for a solid replacement who had strong form when Jake Oettinger struggled with injuries.

Critics can point to the work he has done in his career and say this trade is likely just to improve Colorado’s floor, not its ceiling. That’s certainly valuable in the regular season, but is it enough to significantly improve Colorado’s worst goaltending performance in the league? Is moving from 32nd to 28th enough?

The hope is that you get a Pavel Francouz type, the fear is that you stay exactly who you were before this deal.

The bare facts of this trade are that the Avs gave up the cheaper and (much) younger player, added a draft pick and arguably didn’t get much better. Considering how much Annunen has struggled this year, it’s disappointing not to feel like a replacement for him would be an immediate improvement.

We know anything can happen with goalies, but on the surface this feels like a shaky deal from general manager Chris MacFarland.